rzek

Rzek is the genitive plural form of the Polish noun rzeka, meaning river. The base noun rzeka is feminine; its nominative plural is rzeki, while its genitive plural is rzek. The form rzek is used only in the genitive case to indicate possession or relation to more than one river within a sentence or phrase. It appears in various contexts such as geographic descriptions, hydrological statistics, and administrative texts.

In practice, rzek appears in phrases like brzegi rzek (banks of rivers), źródła rzek (sources of rivers), and długość rzek (lengths of rivers). These constructions show how the genitive plural adapts to describe attributes or parts of multiple rivers. The usage is primarily grammatical rather than lexical, and rzek does not function as an independent noun outside of its role as a case form.

Etymology: rzeka derives from Proto-Slavic *rěka and is cognate with other Slavic terms for river, such as Russian река (reka) and Czech řeka. The word has parallels across Slavic languages and reflects a common semantic root for flowing bodies of water.

Summary: rzek is a standard grammatical form used when referring to multiple rivers in contexts that require the genitive plural. It is encountered mainly in written Polish, particularly in descriptive or statistical passages about rivers.